Fish-in Cycling

[finchfarm]

As many of you know, because of previous tank problems, I was more or less forced to restart my tank and do a fish-in cycle. Yesterday, upon suggestion of people here on the boards, I separated my fish in hopes to lessen the load of ammonia that would eventually come in the 20 gallon they were all in.

Now in the 20 gallon long I have:
2 Angelfish (approx 3 inches)
1 Brown Knife Fish (approx 4-5 inches)
1 Marble Hatchetfish (approx 1 inch)
1 Black Skirt Tetra (approx 2-3 inches)

Now in the 75 gallon I have:
5 Zebra Danios (approx 1-2 inches)
3 Silver Dollars (one the size of a small plate, others approx 3-4 inches)
1 Sailfin Pleco (approx 4 inches)

Fish still seem happy and doing well (aside from the Danios picking on my largest Dollar) and the ammonia levels, for this morning at least, seem better and more manageable. So, now I have a few more questions.

1. How many gallons of water a day do you remmcomed I change out of the 20 gallon per day? How much out of the 75?

2. My larger Silver Dollar has an injury that he sustatined via flipping out and slamming himself into the side of the tank before we had all of our "tank issues" and had to move them. I was hoping his hurt nose would get better, but if anything its gotten worse. Is it okay to put in Melafex while the tank is cycling?

3. I haven't really noticed the Danios picking on the large Dollar this morning....but is this common for them, to pick on other fish? We kept Danios a long time ago and never had them be aggressive. He's the only one they were picking on yesterday. If it continues today or further into the future any ideas on how I can get them to leave him alone?

 

[rdd1952]

The amount and frequency of your water changes will depend on how quickly the ammonia and nitrite rise. You want to keep both of them under .25ppm and never let either got to 1ppm (max of .5ppm would be even better). You may even want to ove a couple more fish from the 20 gallon to the 75 during the cycling period. Currently you have about twice as many fish in the 75 gallon but it his almost 4 times the volume. I think the levels in it will rise slowly but he 2 gallon will jump quickly. Moving a couple more fish may help. I'm not sure about the compatibility issues though.

I'm certainly no expert on diseases and medication but I believe Melafix is a natural product so I don't think it would have any effect on te cycling process or vis versa.

Danios can be nippy, especially in smaller groups.